I think this is the most important article I have seen on the Rust Belt urban condition since this blog began.
Kain Benfield of the Natural Resources Defense Council has raised questions about the wisdom of mass demolitions in “shrinking cities.” In this article, he points out that leading urban thinker Richard Florida has joined him in this perspective.
Benfield makes the point that Detroit, Cleveland and other shrinking cities are being hollowed out, not by regional population loss, but by sprawl. Returning urban areas to quasi-rural will simply lengthen commute times …

It has been a summer of bad news for the Great Lakes:
-Asian Carp invasion.
-Increased climate change-driven warming, in Lake Superior and elsewhere.
-Sewage runoff problems.
Sorry to keep bringing you down, but here’s two more stories, both from The Toledo Blade. This one is about threats to the Lake Erie islands, and this is a detailed investigative piece about the algae blooms that have infested the Lake this summer.
-KG
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Billions of dollars of infrastructure investment are needed to stop untreated sewage from Great Lakes cities that flows into the Lakes, according to a study released earlier this month.
From January 2009 through January of this year, Detroit, Cleveland, Buffalo, Milwaukee and Gary, Indiana, discharged 41 billion gallons of untreated sewage and storm water into the Lakes, according to data analyzed by the Healing Our Waters-Great Lakes Coalition.
“The Great Lakes are under siege from sewage overflows,” Jeff Skelding, campaign director for the Healing Our Waters-Great Lakes Coalition, …

Reporter Peter Annin is an expert on all things Great Lakes-related: the environmental importance of the lakes and how they could be impacted by climate change, and the politics of water and water-sharing agreements involving the lakes and more.

He is the author of Great Lakes Water Wars, a book which details the political fighting and compromises surrounding the Great Lakes Compact – the agreement between the eight US states and two Canadian provinces that border the lakes and governs any diversion of lake water.

He is …

A troubling article from The New York Times via ClimateWire: Lake Superior, the largest, deepest and coldest of the Great Lakes is on track to have its warmest year ever.
“(T)he warming shows no sign of abatement,” the story reports. “This year, the waters in Lake Superior are on track to reach — and potentially exceed — the lake’s record-high temperatures of 68 degrees Fahrenheit, which occurred in 1998.”
The trend appears to be going on in the other lakes as well, the story states.
This is problematic because it …

In the name of protecting water quality in Lake Erie and the state’s streams, the State of Ohio has developed a voluntary, incentive-based program for sustainable development.
It’s full of really good stuff, for example:

Identify priority development and conservation areas.
Offer incentives like density bonuses, streamlined review processes, and design flexibility for development in priority areas.
Evaluate existing zoning codes, review processes, and regulations for disincentives to desirable development practices, and set policy for correcting the disincentives.
Establish regulations that prohibit construction in the wetland and riparian setback area.
Encourage compact neighborhood development, historic preservation …

There’s a group of young people living in a boarded-up mansion in Buffalo.
They don’t pay rent. In fact, they try to avoid using money altogether.
This group is part of an ideology known as Freeganism. They live lives of scavengers, convinced that society wastes too much.

What better place, then, than Buffalo, with its surfeit housing stock?
“It has a beautiful backyard with a lot of blackberry bushes!” a young resident tells the New York Times. With a handful of other misfits, Kit lives in the three-story house, which boasts 1,224 square feet …

Check out the Great Lakes Law blog from The Great Lakes Environmental Law Center in Detroit.
Here, you can read information about how invasive species (Asian Carp), global climate change and more can impact the Great Lakes.
-KG
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An Asian carp has been found in a stream 6 miles from Lake Michigan.

The voracious invasive species, which grows up to 100 pounds, threatens to destroy the Great Lakes ecosystem and its billion-dollar fishing industry.
My dad, an avid fisher, thinks it’s already too late to save the Great Lakes. The government has spent $80 million trying to kill the fish.
-AS
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The city of Columbus has overhauled legislation on parking at new developments, seeking to limit parking spaces and expand amenities for cyclists, according to The Columbus Dispatch.

Here’s a rundown of the new requirements:
- Every type of building — bowling alleys, churches, shopping centers, restaurants, office buildings, etc. — must provide a minimum of two bike-parking spaces.
- Bigger places must provide an extra bike parking spot for every 20 car-parking spaces, up to a maximum of 20 bike spaces.
- Bike racks must be anchored to the ground …